Polls: Immigration reform popular

Immigration reform continues to attract broad public support as the Gang of Eight compromise legislation moves through the Senate, according to a huge raft of polling conducted for three pro-reform groups: the Partnership for a New American Economy, the Alliance for Citizenship and Republicans for Immigration Reform.

In a polling memo set for release Thursday– and shared early with POLITICO – Democratic pollster Tom Jensen and Republican pollster Brock McCleary reveal that their surveys found “overwhelming, bipartisan support for the bill” across 29 states.

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“Over the last few years, we’ve seen a country increasingly polarized across party lines when it comes to almost all attempts to move legislation. Yet, the compromise that’s been crafted on immigration reform is a rare exception to that rule. The bill that’s been constructed has broad support with every segment of the electorate in every part of the country,” write Jensen, who heads the firm Public Policy Polling, and McCleary, of Harper Polling.

The two firms, which use IVR methodology (often called “robo-polling”), collected a mountain of data in states ranging from strongly Republican Idaho and Utah to solidly Democratic Illinois and Maine.

In each state, the pollsters described the legislation in accurate but positive terms, telling participants that the Gang of Eight bill would help “secure our borders, block employers from hiring undocumented immigrants” and require undocumented immigrants to meet “a long list of requirements … over more than a decade” in order to obtain a pathway to citizenship.

Presented with that favorable description of the legislation, voters responded warmly, with between 61 and 78 percent in each state expressing support.

Those are probably best-case numbers for immigration reform advocates. The reform proposals currently under consideration have not yet been picked apart in the Senate and House legislative processes. When politicians debate immigration reform before the voters next year, they won’t be presenting such a plainly one-sided view of the issue.

But at this point, in states represented by key advocates of immigration reform, both the Gang of Eight proposal and a pathway to citizenship earn robust support, as described.

In Florida, where GOP Sen. Marco Rubio has been one of the staunchest supporters of reform legislation, 72 percent of voters said they support the legislation (including 45 percent who strongly support it) and 71 percent backed the pathway to citizenship.

In South Carolina, home to reform-boosting Republican Lindsey Graham, those numbers were only a bit lower: 62 percent who support the Gang of Eight bill and 60 percent who backed the pathway to citizenship.

And in Texas, the rapidly changing but still-conservative state with two senators who have resisted reform – Ted Cruz and John Cornyn – 67 percent said they could support the reform bill as described, with 72 percent backing a pathway to citizenship.

The average support for the “Gang of Eight” legislation was just under 68 percent, according to the pollsters.

McCleary and Jensen write in their memo: “The bipartisan immigration reform package represents a rare opportunity to cast an affirmative vote for major legislation that enjoys overwhelming support from voters of all stripes.”